Tag Archives | motherhood

I had my first panic attack nearly four years ago on my way to the airport. I was dropping someone off, and I had my three youngest kids in the back of the car. My house had been broken into earlier that month. A woman at my kids’ school had been spreading malicious rumors about […]

I don’t know. I don’t even know who is nominated. What movie? When did that come out? What day/month/year is it? (Just kidding, I do know this—but only because I still count my daughter’s age in months even though she’s two.) I used to be the person you wanted on your trivia team. I could […]

Job Title: Mom II Start Date: September 18, 2012 Salary: Hugs and kisses Job Description: Wiper of noses, washer of clothes, maker of beds. Disciplinarian, teacher, bump and scrape kisser. Cook, arbitrator, tucker-inner. What do you like most about your job? Every day is a new day. I never know what challenges will present themselves; […]

Around the start of a new year, external forces tell, remind, inform, and educate us on how to transform into the best versions of ourselves. Advertisements for gym memberships don the billboards along the highways while radio commercials boast of the latest and greatest techniques that promise to erase those stretch marks for good (yeah, […]

As most primary caregivers know, providing quality emotional support for kids is exhausting. We are tasked with teaching these future adults how to be productive members of humanity (aka: how NOT to be a-holes). It’s constant: “I see you’re upset that your sister chooses not to share right now. Instead of hitting her and screaming […]

Whenever I share my grievances concerning motherhood I always get “oh, it’s just a season.” There is the teething season, which seems to last forever. There is the diaper season, which actually does last forever if you have back-to-back-to-back-to-back babies. There is the toddler tantrum season, which comes and goes. We have experienced a crying […]

“One day we won’t see him anymore.” “One day he will be married and busy.” “And we won’t get to swing with him.” In our backyard, enjoying the long awaiting arrival of cold weather, I overhear my middle child explaining to her sister what she expects to happen with her baby brother. She knows adulthood […]

Motherhood is an adjustment. It is hard going from a flexible schedule that you can control to one that’s ever-changing, filled with non-negotiable things and wild cards, like nap times and explosive diapers. We are all aware of how hard it can be to balance motherhood and…basically anything else. Friendships are one thing that we […]

Somewhere between getting married and my daughter going to preschool, I lost myself. Life and what I thought it should be, what I should be as a woman and mom, got away from me. I have always had goals and plans: general should-do items for life and specific career goals and milestones. But somehow life […]

For the love of queso, stop asking me if I want a boy. I’m serious. From the moment we found out we were expecting our first daughter, we got questions about whether we wanted a boy, whether we were going to “try again” for a boy (as if we could’ve gotten one the first time […]

Her name was Evelyn, and she spent most of her life in Florida. I want you to picture her red hair, probably wavy from all that salty air. She had five children and was married to a railroad man. She was born in July 1891 and would never have worked outside her home. Managing a […]

While I might be biased, I think moms are kinda the best thing in the world. Seriously, we rock. We cook, clean, make sure everyone is happy (oh, the laughable, impossible task!), and try so darn hard at pretty much everything all day long so that our family might find pleasure in their lives. This […]

Think fast, hot shot. You need to get your toddler in her car seat and she wants your car keys. Do you: Refuse to hand over the keys, deal with a tantrum, and struggle to strap the kiddo in while working up a sweat because you are testing your tolerance of 90-degree heat with 80% […]

Disclaimer: This post is the second of four in a series about one ACMB Team Member’s experience with infant loss. (Click here to read “Our Firstborn: A Journal [Part One].”) We understand that this post may include language and ideas that are difficult or traumatizing to some readers and urge you to stop reading if […]